Unbroken
by J. Cassia-Rendthal
Summary: 'If you had been brave – or stronger – maybe you could have reached out to someone. Maybe that year of your life wouldn't have been so bad had you searched for help. But you didn't, and you silently watched yourself fall.' Reader insert slight Sam romance.


**Imagine: A hunt goes wrong, and your life flashes on front of you.**

 **Warnings: Death.**

 **Word count: 1515**

Ten years ago you met the Winchesters. You were only a teenager when two new kids arrived in school, capturing everyone's attention. You didn't really care for either brother, in fact, you didn't really care for anyone back then. You were struggling. Your family was falling apart and you were doing so with it – the light that had once been a burning beacon for your safety was diminishing quickly and you couldn't have been more torn up.

If you had been brave – or stronger – maybe you could have reached out to someone. Maybe that year of your life wouldn't have been so bad had you searched for help. But you didn't, and you silently watched yourself fall.

Nine years ago you had your first kiss. You had thought it had been something special, something magical. But there was nothing behind it – lies were written all over it and pain struck you like a fist when you first came to the realization that he didn't care about you.

But somehow, you were found. It was one of the rarest occasions that really happened – yours was the one school that the two Winchesters stayed at for just over a year. Over a class project you became attached to the younger brother, finding your first real friend in the shaggy-haired boy that seemed harmless at first.

A little over eight years ago he left you.

Seven years ago you graduated high school. It should have been a massive thing for you – something you should have been dreaming of for a while. You should have had wild plans to party with friends, laugh with your family and stumble home drunk. But no one showed up for you at the ceremony which led to only the the last of the three to come true.

Six years ago you discovered the truth about the monsters under every kid's bed. You had been accepted into a college that turned out to have a ghost infection, or so Dean Winchester had called it when he and his father came-a-calling to extinguish the problem. Over the week that they were there you two became aquainted. Dean had been less hesitant than usual to speak to you because he recognized you as the girl that his younger brother had brought home every day after school for extra study, or so that you could do homework together.

Dean reluctantly told you everything that had happened with Sam and Stanford the year earlier.

Five years ago you aquired your first knife set and lived through your first near-death experience. After meeting a gang of hunters your age you were taught a few tricks and foolishly decided to take on a shifter on your own. That fight made you learn many things about survival.

Four years ago you made one small, but terribly consequencial mistake. After trying your hand at hunting again you allowed yourself to get drunk one night. You hadn't accounted for how drunk you would get, but at that point in time drinking away every problem seemed like the best thing. You had met a demon that seemed to know everything about you – from your family issues, your failed hunts and even the fact that you still missed your best friend from six years ago. It had reminded you of all your failures in life, all the hurt and all the betrayal you had lived through.

So you did what anyone would do – you got yourself as drunk as possible to try and escape the pain as long as you could. But in your intoxicated state you had stupidly let your guard down and you got followed home by a demon you had failed to exorcise. You had been left on the floor of your motel black and blue and bleeding out. The motel manager had found you later and managed to get you to the hospital in time but in truth, you really wished that he hadn't dialled the emergancy number.

Three years ago Dean Winchester waltzed back into your life. In your head, you had prayed that he was coming just so that he could see you, but you obviously knew better. No one ever came just to see you. Of course he had wanted something.

Dean was worried about Sam. It seemed like the neverending story for the brothers, and you had let out a frustrated sigh when you found out Dean was only here so that you could check up on his brother for him, because his pride got in the way of him doing so himself. Of course, you did so anyway. It had been strange, seeing Sam again after all those years. At first you thought he wouldn't remember you – who would? You almost chickened out when you saw him at a local diner with another girl. They appeared to be close, and you were terrified to impose yourself on their happy life. You didn't want to mess up their relationship by turning up out the blue and making things awkward. You hated that feeling, the one you got whenever you met up with anyone – that you were keeping them from better things.

But it all worked out, in the end. You managed to check on Sam for Dean. Sam remembered you well, in fact, he seemed very excited to see you. His girlfriend, Jess, wasn't the slightest bit jealous when Sam gave you his new number so that you could contact him if there was any trouble. She was definitely the kind of girl that Sam deserved, and you tried not to let yourself feel envy at the amount of time they got to spend together.

Two years ago you got a phone call from the older Winchester brother saying that Sam was back in the game. Desperate to see him again, you had gone to the destination that he told you to meet him at where you quickly got used to their brotherly antics. After careful persuasion they finally agreed to let you hunt with them. They promised it was only temporarily, that they would make sure you would get your life back on track.

You hadn't seen Sam since you had checked up on his for Dean, although you texted occasionally. You felt a little bit of the bond you had once shared had been restored.

Honestly upset at the loss of Jess, who, although having only met her briefly, you knew was a good person, you provided the best form of support for Sam that you could – a friend. When he did cry, you made sure that Dean didn't find out. Obviously, he would have cared for his little brother's pain, yet you felt that Sam needed someone a tad more gentle at that point. You were right.

One year ago you experienced something you never thought you would.

You had been hunting with the brothers when Sam had casually draped his arm over you shoulder. In that moment, you realized.

You liked Sam.

You recognised the feeling now – the constant rush whenever you were close and the want to always be around him and being without the ability to think of anyone else when you were apart and not being able to comprehend why you didn't ever see it before when it was glaring you in the face the whole time...

And the wrench in your gut when you realized that he would _never_ feel the same way.

Right now you were lying on the muddy ground outside a now abandoned house. It was night, but the looming shadows of the trees that any other second would have been intimidating didn't scare you anymore. You had no reason to be afraid of the dark right now.

Two brothers knelt at your side. Tears ran silently down their faces as they each took turns whispering words of comfort to you. They had become your closest friends recently and you didn't really want to leave them, yet you knew that with each other they would be okay. Nothing could break up the Winchester duo, right?

A single tear rolled off your cheek and mixed with your blood that was slowly staining the ground red. But it wasn't a tear of sadness. You recognized this tear as one for the Winchesters. The blood you saw as your life.

"It's gonna be okay, (Y/N), okay?" Sam whispered. His words caught in his throat though, and they came out weaker than you knew he intended them to be. Sam would be worst off after you were gone, but he had his elder brother to take care of him. You had known Dean long enough to know that he would make sure his little brother was okay.

As the last tendrils of life drew further away you knew that it was now, or not at all. With the most amount of courage you could muster and many more tears making their way down your face you turned your head to Sam. And so, in your dying moment, you breathed the words that you never had before -

"I love you,"

 _..._

 _If you liked this, please check out my tumblr, casareyoudrunk, for more reader inserts. I write often and there will be regular updates. If you don't have tumblr, I am considering uploading the ones from there onto here anyway._

 _Thanks for reading!_


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